Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer
Left: Norman Grant: The current rate of property tax on agricultural lands should be reviewed. Right: Workers planting vegetable suckers at Green Produce Farm in Claremont, St. Ann. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
DESPITE CRIES from agricultural stakeholders that the high level of taxation is stunting the growth of the fragile sector, the Government has no records of the amounts collected from General Consumption Tax (GCT), duties on agricultural inputs and equipment and property tax on agricultural lands.
After searching desperately over the past four weeks to find out how much revenue is generated from taxes collected from the agricultural and tourist sectors, The Gleaner has been told no records exist. The only tax records that exist were for the bauxite sector as outlined in the Planning Institute of Jamaica's (PIOJ) annual Economic and Social Survey.
When asked, the PIOJ said the tax data coming to the institute did not have a breakdown of the taxes collected from these sectors. We were then referred to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) and the Ministry of Finance and Planning, which also could not provide us with the information. They referred us to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
DWINDLING COLLECTION
Figures provided by the IRD's Director of Accounts, Deon Bromfield, indicated that only $6,211 was collected from agricultural-related taxes for the 2002/03 fiscal year. The collection was even smaller for the 2003/04 fiscal year when $550 was collected and none was collected for the 2004/05 fiscal, according to the IRD's director of accounts' figures. Mr. Bromfield explained that the figures did not include fees collected from the marketing of some agricultural produce nor did the figures include GCT collected on agricultural equipment and some imported inputs used by farmers. He said this was not readily available and would take some time to do the necessary paper work.
The IRD figures for tourism were also lacking. There was no data to show how much was collected from GCT, airport, travel or other taxes that have been imposed on the sector. The data only included duties on hotel accommodation and hotel licence fees. The Government collected no hotel accommodation fees from 2002 to 2005, but hotel licence fees grew each year from over $6 million to nearly $8 million over the same period.
The Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) and the Ministry of Agriculture could not provide any additional information as they, too, had no figures. When contacted, president of the JAS, Senator Norman Grant, was only able to point out the various taxes that apply to the sector. He pointed out that there was a GCT of 16.5 per cent on agricultural equipment and a special concessionary duty rate for the importation of agricultural equipment and machinery.
Agriculture Minister, Roger Clarke, said, "We are told what the charges are. It's difficult for us to know what is paid." He directed us to the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
Tax contributions
The following contributions were made to the tax revenue of the agricultural, tourist and bauxite sectors for financial years 2002-2005:
| SECTOR | 2002/2003 | 2003/2004 | 2004/2005 |
| $ | $ | $ |
| Agriculture | 6,211.00 | 550.00 | |
Tourism
| Hotel licence fee | 6,329,710.88 | 6,905,650 | 7,719,090.00 |
| Hotel accommodation | | | |
Bauxite
| Company bauxite | 789,431,665.00 | 745,310,168.68 | 189,559,833.00 |
| Royalties | 310,695,005.00 | 512,567,263.40 | 326,897,601.61 |
| Total | 1,106,462,591.88 | 1,264,783,632.08 | 524,176,524.61 |
Source: Inland Revenue Department
